Richard is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution department, who advises on commercial disputes, often with international and fraud elements, with a particular specialisation in insurance.Richard advises individual and institutional funds clients on claims arising from investments in rights issues and other corporate investments under FSMA s90 and s 90A, and is involved in some of the leading cases in this developing area, for example advising Scottish Widows and others in their claims in the RBS rights issue litigation. He also led the team defending a Kazakh businessman against claims of $5billion brought by a state owned Bank, including defending various alleged breaches of world-wide freezing and receivership orders. The litigation was amongst the most complex ever seen in the UK and involved over 40 hearings and multiple jurisdictions.Richard also advises international clients on shipping disputes over charter parties and letters of credit. He is also involved in international construction disputes, and has a growing practice litigating shareholder disputes, often, but by no means exclusively, in the hedge fund/ private equity arena. Accordingly, as well as regularly being in the Commercial Court, Richard has current and detailed expertise in the rules and procedures of all the main international trade and arbitration bodies, including LCIA, ICC, and GAFTA, and of the FIDIC (yellow book and red book) rules. On the insurance side, he acts predominantly for corporate policy holders on coverage issues across a wide range of industries, and has expertise in most lines of business. This includes professional indemnity, D&O, employers' liability, corporate crime, cyber/privacy, political risk, trade credit, and all property and construction related risks. In addition, he acts for insurance and reinsurance companies in disputes, insolvency and run off issues in the reinsurance sector.Richard is ranked as a Tier I expert in Chambers 2017 and has been listed as an expert in both Chambers and Legal 500 since 2007. He was recently selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers™ in the United Kingdom 2017 in the field of Insurance Law. He has also been at the forefront of innovation in the litigation funding field, advising on and working with clients on conditional fee arrangements, and maintaining deep links with the main players in the funding and ATE community.
Mishcon de Reya LLP
Mishcon de Reya LLP’s ‘market-leading’ insurance disputes team ’combines broad commercial awareness with targeted knowledge’, from expertise in Bermuda Form disputes to recent experience participating in the FCA Business Interruption test case and involvement in one of three ongoing test cases regarding Covid-19 aggregation issues. The growing team is led by ‘stand out partner’ Sonia Campbell, a specialist in life science work with and high-profile directors and officers coverage issues, and Richard Leedham – ’one of the very best around’ – who has extensive experience acting for corporate policyholders across a range of industries. Ralph Fearnhead and senior associate Sophie Fairclough are also recommended.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
‘Unrivalled expertise acting for insureds against insurers and brokers in high-value, complex disputes provides the team with a unique and compelling offering to clients. Beyond this, there is real strength in depth and outstanding partner engagement.’
‘Sonia Campbell is a stand-out partner who leads from the front. She is amazingly dedicated to her clients and goes the extra mile in pushing their cases forward. She has detailed knowledge of the market and relevant law combined with a sure strategic touch.’
‘Sonia Campbell puts all her efforts in providing the best services for the client, choosing the right legal team including barristers. She gets involved in all aspects: the merits, evidence, the entire process.’
'Sophie Fairclough is an excellent lawyer, very efficient, very good to work with.’
‘Mishcon de Reya's policyholder insurance offering is market-leading and combines broad commercial awareness with targeted knowledge and access to some of the best barristers at the drop of a hat.’
‘One of the very best claimant insurance law firms in the world.’
‘Richard Leedham continues to be one of the very best around. Tough, clever, insightful and highly experienced and determined.'
‘Richard Leedham is a very safe pair of hands and a brilliant, commercial operator who knows how to manage and settle the most complex of disputes.'
Key clients
- Various Eateries Trading Limited
- Prosus Limited
- Apache Capital Partners Limited
- Al Mana Group
- Covid-19 Business Interruption – Allianz Group Action Claim
Work highlights
- Advised Various Eateries Trading Limited on COVID-19 aggregation issues in proceedings that were heard in July 2022.
- Advised Prosus on a review of their global D&O insurance cover programme and on their parent company Cyber insurance cover.
- Acted for 21 companies within the Al Mana Group ("AMG") in relation to insurance coverage issues concerning multiple multi-jurisdictional operations across a variety of sectors in a number of GCC countries and Ireland.
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Leading individuals
Sonia is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution department. She specialises in complex commercial disputes (litigation and arbitration), including breach of contract and tortious claims involving breaches of fiduciary duty, dishonesty, trust issues and shareholder disputes. She has particular expertise in dealing with insurance coverage disputes. Sonia is regularly retained to act in international arbitrations, and is experienced in all major forms (LCIA, ICC, Bermuda Form, ad hoc). In the insurance sector, Sonia acts only for policyholders/insureds in insurance coverage disputes against their insurers. For this reason she also tends to be conflict free. Sonia usually represents corporate and high net worth clients, and advises across a broad range of sectors, including: pharmaceutical and life sciences; betting and gaming; retail and consumer; real estate and construction, and financial services. Within these sectors, Sonia deals with directors' and officers'; cyber; employment practices; fidelity / crime, fiduciary/PTL and professional indemnity liability issues. She also advises on a broad range of risk management issues. Sonia is the firm's Head of BAME Diversity & Inclusion.
Practice head
The lawyer(s) leading their teams.
Richard Leedham, Sonia Campbell